Friday, August 10, 2018

My latest poster, U MATTER, has very little typography yet it is just as difficult to finalize as any other poster that utilizes several variations. The type in this poster can't hide. I lacks all the distracting elements that many posters have to cram in like an event location or list of beverages being served at the event. I tried about 30 different hand drawn styles with nothing catching my eye. The only thing that hit me was that the stuff I was drawing was either too fancy or too thin or too something that made it lousy when sitting below the hand drawn U. I was left with the real problem every designer faces once in a while... quit or grind! Well, grinding isn't fun most of the time. Like the word implies, it's rough going. I'm not climbing Everest or anything, but I am trying to get to point B and B isn't in sight. You have no idea how far away the answer is lurking. All you know is that it exists.

After a bit more grinding... I just happened to quickly scribble some vertical lines together to build an M. And that was it. 40 to 50 variations and "whammo"... ya get it. I took a felt tipped marker, nothing fancy, and drew it serveral more times with that scribble-style to bold out the type. In the upper right corner, above, you can see it then took about 5 R's to get one that fit.

I then scan it all into the computer and clean it up a bit (usually leaving it alone more than cleaning). The finished poster is simple... as simple as the statement. I gave it space to breathe and that was that. I did decide a black version would also work. I shrunk "MATTER" just a bit due to the brightness of the white. It could speak loudly even with a reduction in scale. Felt right.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

This process has been quite a ride. The designing has easily taken long enough, but you combine that with attempting to make it cost effective, and you have a wonderful nightmare. I am happy it's over. Now the tweaking of how it can work smoothly is in the works. I opened an Etsy shop so folks can buy them if they choose. Finding a cost effective avenue outside of CafePress and Society6 has been a struggle. It all comes down to having this all be worth the artist's time.Well... the time has come.I am starting with 8 posters, pictured below. They mostly pertain to the Art Classroom but several can work in any classroom. This will also be the future of my designing. I will attempt to improve Art rooms as well as a general education classroom.My goal was to have interesting graphics, quality typography and an authentic hand drawn look that invites young people to look and engage. If they don't look at it, it's a waste of money and paper! Over the last 12 years of teaching I have been boiling things down and experimenting with design elements to see which things kids react to and what holds their attention. My hope is to keep going and to keep improving. Teaching is getting harder and harder. I want these posters/tools to help you all in your rooms. I like looking at them and hope you and your students do as well...

comic about comics

caring

do not invent directions

effort is everything

elements of design

please draw lightly first

art's equation

tools not toys

To purchase any or all of these, click on the link here or on the Etsy logo in the upper right corner of the blog... Thanks big!!!!!ps... still trying to discount multiple poster purchase... yikes, what a pain!

Friday, March 2, 2018

My family and I went to support the Girl's High School basketball team the other night at our local University. A district game that they ended up losing and I will not discuss the inability to officiate the game by those who are supposed to be able to do so. Not only did I see four different fonts used to say the word "Mansfield" within the gymnasium, I saw this gem of a painted sign that hangs over the entrance. You only get to experience the full glory of these typographic mistakes once you are seated and able to really let it sink in.

The word "Country" was on the right side of the clock. Nowhere, could I find, any reason for the stem of the M to drop below the baseline. The awkwardness of that letter kept me peaking up from the court in between lousy calls... oops!, I commented. Then, the stencil or projector must have shifted during tracing as the curved leg of the R got crushed. The R is just plain bad on a whole lotta levels!The outline of the word (white stroke around the black letters) is just TOO big. It creates this blast of white in the E's that is way too intense and teenie tiny slivers in the M, A, E's and R that bother me almost as much.Other than that, it's pretty good.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Click on the TV. Straight to the Olympics. NBC stinks, by the way, at showing this incredible athletic event. I get way more talk from non-athletes than staight up competition (this whole gripe is for an angry strongo comic on another occassion). Ski Jumping!!! Cool!!! Don't know a single athlete. Don't care! It's the Olympics! It's all about the flag on the outfit. Very exciting. Then.... the mustache. This talented jumper has an old school almost handlebar that is mighty cool. He jumps amazing. Slides over to the camera, and as usual, pops the skis off and gets them into the TV screen as soon as possible.

THEN.... The ski comes into view. It's beautiful. Clean. Gridded. Helvetica. Very Swiss. Even as I type this out and the image is before me, I keep glancing up and checking it out. Great spacing. Fits snuggly but breathes well. I would hang the ski in my house like any other piece of cool design that I may find. You can check out the skis and the typography used a bit closer at the Slatnar site here.GO USA!!!!

Monday, February 12, 2018

Over the past few decades, my sketchbooks have slowly switched from general drawings of my surroundings and random doodles to lettering. Letter forms are inherently beautiful when done well and inherently difficult to do well. That search for making something your own and making it hold it's beauty is a challenge that drives an amazing amount of people all over the net. My nerdiness isolated me prior to the Internet. Once I made my way into the modern age, I realized that my disorder is plaguing people all over the world. As an elementary art teacher, I am always looking for a way to inspire my students to look closer at the world around them and creatively analyze it. The "problem solvers" are what schools should be turning out. The art room is a great place to kick start this process. When the first two paragraphs mesh, you get student names/initials as design. Some students were asked their interests and others I took as a straight typographic problem to solve. Some choices were based on student personality while others are reflective of my state of mind at the time. (Sophie, the first one shown, is my neice, not a student)....

Thursday, February 2, 2017

This past year, BMW drove an i8 supercar to R.B. Walter Elementary. One of our former students, Ryan Belz, now working for WENY as a Meteorologist and journalist, came to the school to do a story on that event. Somehow, I failed to post the video that Ryan produced that made its way onto our local nightly news.A fine young man with loads of talent, Ryan has continued to bring his knowledge and skills back to R.B. by presenting super interesting demonstrations on science and weather in the classrooms. I know the demos are cool because my daughter has come home singing his praises. Kids will let you know how they really feel... Ryan is good!Here is the video that he shot:

We are proud of you Ryan. Best of luck to you as your future is wide open and ready for big things. THANKS AGAIN!!!

Two years ago, a major car company did nothing for my 4th graders as we sent in a Cars of the Future art project. I am not naming them because we can never be totally sure if it was the companies fault. Anyway, feeling a bit sorry for the lack of response that was given to my students from that company, I set out to find another way for the students to get some interaction with a major corporation. Sneakers of the Future was hopefully the answer.I was a teen as Nike defined cool footwear and athletic marketing throughout the 80's. Their shoes were visually light years ahead of the others. Nike commercials, in my opinion, were often more exciting than the sporting events they advertised during. Under Armour has emerged as a possible new trendsetter in athletic marketing. Their logo is showing up EVERYWHERE. Students are wearing the gear, commercials all over and professional athletics have the logo showing up on jerseys across all sports.So, last year, the 5th graders worked on a project that had them analyzing their own shoes and inventing concepts of how shoes could look and what innovations might show up on them in the future (I defined the future to be months from now up to 100 years from now). They worked mighty hard and they were sent down to Under Armour's corporate headquarters in Maryland. This shipment happened at the end the 2015-16 school year. Two examples:

About three months ago, I received call from Danielle Thompson, Assistant Production Line Manager - Youth Footwear, at Under Armour. A super nice young lady, Danielle said that Under Armour was very excited to see the student designs and that they wanted to do "something" to thank the students and their hard work. I, of course, was pumped. I told Danielle that my students would love "anything" that Under Armour would be willing to do. Most companies get some gifts in a box and send it off to us. Some get their design teams involved and we get a bit more thoughtful and interesting gifts. And only two, prior to Under Armour, have stepped outside the very cool and entered the awesome and those were BMW North America (check it out here) and Subaru (check it here).(this next paragraph is slight speculation mixed in with many facts as I was not present with the folks at Under Armour as they went through this process) This year, the number of awesome responsesfrom companies has jumped to three. Under Armour had their team of designers review the student artwork. They each picked their 5 favorite ideas presented by the students and then the top 5 of those were boiled down. The Under Armour team then decided that they would make a 3-D digital model of the finished shoe that combined those 5 elements. They then took that show and built a small commercial/thank you for the students.

Put yourself in the shoes of my students and check out the video (really, no pun intended!!!! really!)... make it full screen....

The video brought the student work full circle. They could see their ideas in seeming real life. The students sketched, made a finished version of their ideas and Under Armour finished it off. The students were pumped.

The top five ideas were:5. Color changing

4. Self-fitting3. Temperature Control

2. Storage Pouch1. Fly/hover mode

Also, the designers at UA designed a 3D paper shoe (below) that the students could build. This probably took longer than the video to figure out! They sent some blank versions so the students could design variations of the Warrior 2055. So COOL!!!!

With some careful cutting and little bits of glue, you get a very cool paper Warrior.

I gauge awesome in this entire scenario by the response of the students. This was AWESOME! Under Armour should be proud of this team and their thoughtfulness. Creative people can change peoples lives with their time and their care.

Friday, December 30, 2016

This was spotted during Dickens of a Christmas over in Wellsboro, Pa. Not sure the bank name, but it is right on the main street. Anywho, the lettering is awesome. The font below is killer as well. Love the wide "c's" and the dot under the small "c". This sign would hand in the living room!!!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

I have been drawing nothing but lettering for the past few months. At some moments, I really feel like I am getting it. Wow, is it difficult to get it "just so". The slightest mistake is usually punching you in the face. There is no middle ground with type. It either works or fails. I am pushing myself with all kinds of tools and styles to get the right look of every project. My brother, Capt. Gregg McKee, of WildFly Charters, is tough to find gifts for. I just try to keep him in interesting variations of tee shirts for his business. I like the mix of type styles and the weights of it all. When I squint, which it almost constantly as I draw now, it felt right. The space is just as important as the letters. I think so much differently now about Art in general. My expectations are much higher but the focus of those expectations are in far different places and on elements like "space" and "movement" and "emphasis". When I was young, it was on realism and more realism. That is gone. That is good. Art is becoming much more fun because of it.

Been super busy as of late but had time off over Christmas break. Merry Christmas to all (by the way) and hope all is going well. This idea, though silly, never seems to be far from my mind. I can't shake it. And when I can't shake it, I doodle it. The many doodles have lead to this.

I look everywhere for well-used vintage book covers. The color and level of abuse are usually the deciding factors when found. They work well for what I have visioned for the final products of certain ideas. All of the color was printed using Styrofoam sheets and then scanning in. I do not use Photoshop Actions or pre-packaged apps to get my weathering.Happy New Year as well.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

We visited Corning, NY the other day in search of some gifts. Any time I go to Corning I am in search of some old typography. The city has an interesting history and much of it has been preserved and still promoted. We stepped into a local glass shop and whammo! There it is.

Exactly the kind of thing I am looking for. An historically important part of Corning's past and an inspiring part of a Font Geek's present. The sign is huge. About 10-12 feet wide. It is dimensional. Carved out letters with a textured background. Great bird logo above...WOW!

The sign is in rough shape. That is fine by me as I think we should experience it as life and the elements have delivered it to us. It tells a more intimate story in this state. A special "thank you" to the person in charge of displaying it. They had the insight leave it be. Also, the entrance to this building is beautiful. Old, stately doors. Plenty of glass. Great railings on the staircase.

If you are ever in the beautiful city of Corning, head to Market Street on the Wegman's end of town. Check it out. (if the company was as good as the sign, they were mighty good!)

SHOP for POSTERS

I am a father, husband, art teacher, graphic designer and chronic doodler. This blog is to let family see what I am up to (and anyone else who might be interested). The name Angry Strongo was invented by my 4.5 (now 10) yr old son. I was looking for an outlet to push myself creatively on a daily basis. My sons catchy name lit the fire. I created the Angry character as an overqualified, night shift stock person at a major grocery store chain. He lacks patience and coping skills. He battles with anger management issues and can find fault with most of what life throws his way. Have a great day...and drive safely.